33-MHz MCU’s Integral DRAM Unclogs Data Transfer Snarls

With 192 kbytes of embedded DRAM, the C163-24D microcontroller is said to eliminate data transfer bottlenecks. The 16-bit, 33-MHz MCU operates at 3.3V and is tolerant of 5V I/O with typical power dissipation of less than 300 mW. Fast code execution from the 66-MHz embedded DRAM is facilitated by a 32-bit-wide internal bus to the CPU. Code download is accelerated by a DMA state machine, which eliminates the need for a system cache and allows the use of low-speed external memory for code storage. Other features of the new MCU include scratch-pad SRAM, bootstrap loader ROM, and many peripherals.